For me, biscuits have always been troublesome, but with a quick glance at the full color pictures, I saw that I had mistakenly been mixing too long and not kneading enough. The result, perfect Southern buttermilk biscuits.

The Recipes unit contains a nice selection of Southern dishes.

Having a sweet tooth, I couldn’t pass on the Coke cake.

While not trying to imitate the Cracker Barrel desert, the recipe, with homemade icing, was rich, moist and chocolaty. The instructions detailed each step of production without skipping anything or being redundant.

According to her bio, the author, Katherine Cobbs, left her first publishing job at National Geographic for culinary school on the West Coast. Cobbs’ attention to visual story telling is an apparently a carryover from her days at the magazine. It is a down-to-earth guide that has the experience of a chef without the gourmet’s haughty, obscure fare.

“Home Cooking Basics,” hardcover with 416 pages lists for $29.95. It is available at Amazon.com and Barns and Nobel, as well as bookstores.